What Motivates the DC Staffer
Tanner Greer nails it
The staffer who crafts a memo, the speechwriter who drafts an address, the analyst who slaves away at some obscure report, the clerk who comments on a case, and the journalist in the briefing room are all engaged in different versions of the same task. Through their labors each one hopes to shape the way an important audience frames an issue of concern. They are attempting to mold the priorities and perceptions of the powerful. Those who successfully do this have influence. Such influence is the object of Washington’s ambitious.
…You are succeeding when a politician uses language you wrote or draws on concepts you developed.
I remember when I first came to DC in February of 1973, as an intern for Senator Hubert Humphrey. When the Economic Report of the President was issued, the legislative assistant who was my boss gave me the report and asked me to come up with questions that the Senator might ask at the hearing of the Joint Economic Committee the next day.
I went to my $75-a-month room 6 blocks Southeast of the Capitol close to a sketchy neighborhood (today it is completely gentrified, with yuppie bars and restaurants) and typed up some questions. At the top of my memo, I warned that it included three ways to ask a question about tax reform, two of which were fair and the third was demagogic. The legislative assistant ostentatiously took a scissors to my warning, and thanked me for the questions.
At the hearing, when Senator Humphrey’s turn came and he began to speak, my spine tingled. He was using my question! (He chose the demagogic version)
I have long since lost the stereotypical DC wonk’s thrill at having a memo make its way into the public discussion. But I saw a lot of people who have not lost that thrill when I had the privilege of attending Adam Ozimek’s “econTwitter in real life” shindig last month. I ducked out of several conversations in which wonks talked excitedly about how their memos were doing.
I felt more comfortable around Allison Schrager, the last mainstream economist. She lives in New York, and she and I both look on as outsiders at current economic policy and shake our heads. Some day, the politicians who are kicking the can of the national debt and unfunded Social Security and Medicare obligations are going to come to the end of the road.
I would add something to Greer’s stereotype. I think that there is also a starstruck mentality as well. Just as in LA, where somebody who has met a famous movie director or star will not fail to let you know about it, somebody in DC who has met an important public official will be sure to bring it up in conversation.
substacks referenced above:@
Yes, staffers and toadies willingly join a cult of celebrity around their (usually) not very impressive boss. They’ve drunk the Kool-Aid. This perplexes anyone outside the bubble.
This happens in many large bureaucracies, including corporations. The toadies fawning over the CEO are embarrassing.
This is spot on. It also contributes to the adverse selection problem, as the people who rise to the top are the ones for whom the cheap thrill of status and recognition never wears off, and who care little about whether their influence is correlated with reality just so long as they can be seen as having influence by their peers.